Lamb to the Slaughter is a short story written by Roald Dahl (1953) which the reader can analyze using a feminist lens and Freud’s Psychoanalytical criticism. Mary, the protagonist, is a pregnant housewife who learns from her husband that he is going to leave her. The author describes Mary’s reaction to this terrible news by depicting her as going into a state of fugue in which Mary murders her husband with a frozen leg of lamb, and later destroys the evidence by feeding the cooked lamb to the police officers who come to investigate the murder. This characterization is typical of the attitude of the society of the time of a women, pregnant, presented with a situation she cannot control. Mary’s first instinct is to reject her husband’s news …show more content…
Through a feminist lens, it is evident that Mary is a product of the attitudes of her society in the mid-twentieth century, where patriarchal views are still in power. As a pregnant woman, Dahl portrays Mary as feeling that she needs her husband to take care of her and their child for both social and financial stability. This emphasizes the unequal gender roles of that time, where women are subordinate to men. Additionally, through a psychoanalytic lens, one can agree that Mary’s rejection of her husband’s news shows her Id response. Although Mary’s consciousness recognizes the situation, her unconscious mind is trying to repress the pain. The impulsivity of her action shows that Mary’s Id response is responsible for her accidental murdering of her husband. In a childlike state, Mary feels hurt by her husband, so in turn she hurts him back. Following the murder of her husband, Mary comes to terms with her actions, and goes into her Superego and Ego response. Mary builds an alibi by going to the grocery store, where in a Superego state, she pretends her husband is still
In Lamb to the Slaughter, Mary Maloney, doting housewife pregnant with her first child, commits a heinous crime against her husband. After he tells her that he is leaving, she become distraught and strikes him in the head with a leg of lamb. Afterwards, Mary...
“Lamb to the Slaughter” by Roald Dahl captivates readers as they follow the story of how a loving wife turns into a merciless killer. This passage is told from the point
All of Roald Dahl’s stories seem to be brimfull of irony and wry humor, and “Lamb to the Slaughter” is no different. Mary Maloney, a pregnant, but cheerful woman is very much in love with her husband and we certainly don’t expect her to be of any trouble. It’s shocking enough to learn that her husband, who seems such a nice guy, is cheating on her and plans to move out. This changes the expectation of the story right off the bat, and we feel a compassion for the poor woman. We’re not sure how she’s going to cope with this news, especially since she’s six months pregnant with his child. So when she acts rather compulsively and strikes him over the head with the leg of lamb that was going to be his supper, we really are shocked. She’s acted
Mary played the role of a very caring wife at the beginning of the story, since she was always there for her husband and tried to do anything to serve and satisfy him. Firstly, as soon as her husband came home “She took his coat and hung it in the closet. Then she walked over and made the drinks”(Dahl 2). Later on when she notices that her husband seemed depressed, she asked him, “Would you like me to get you some cheese” (Dahl 2). When he says no, she replies “But you must eat! I’ll fix it anyway” (Dahl 2). This shows the care she had toward her husband at the beginning of the stroy and how her life used to revolve him. Furthermore, it shows how she used to do anything to please him. Therefore this proves how she knew her duties and responsibilities toward her husband really well. Although, in this story, Mary Maloney was not only a very a dutiful and caring wife, but during the story she transitioned into becoming an even more dutiful mother who was well aware of her responsibilities. After she killed her husband she thought of her child and wondered, “What were the laws about murderers with unborn children? Did they kill the both- mother and child? Or did they wait until the tenth month? What did they do? Mary Maloney didn’t know. And she certainly wasn’t prepared to take a chance” (Dahl 3). This shows how Mary Maloney had created this entire plan just to save her child and didn’t care what harm came to her. Therefore this definitely makes her a very caring mom, because it takes a lot of love to do such a thing. So this definitely makes her the perfect mother. In conclusion, Mary Maloney is strongly aware of her duties and responsibilities. Therefore, she was able to carry out the entire plan because people knew how much she loved her husband and so people trusted her. Also, she created this plan because
“For God’s sake,” he said, not turning round. “Don’t make supper for me. I’m going out.”
To illustrate, in the author’s words, “Why don’t you eat up that lamb that’s in the oven?” (Dahl, p. 324) In this quote the author proposes that Mary deceived the detectives into eating the murder weapon. This quote models the author’s use of character development as Mary went from the beginning of being good-natured and honest to deceitful. This brings the immoral evolution of Mary out. Moreover, the author plainly asserts, “And in the other room, Mary Maloney began to giggle.” (Dahl, p. 324) In this quote, the author describes how Mary laughed as the detectives ate the murder weapon. This quote reminds the reader that Mary is now “innocent” in a different sense than she was in the beginning of the story. “Perfect”, unaware, self-sacrificing, wife Mary is gone. Revealed to the readers is wicked, manipulative murderer
“Her first instinct was not to believe any of it, to reject it all” (319). In the short story by Roald Dahl, Mary was a devoted housewife who later on turns into a cunning, deranged housewife. Mary Maloney is a woman who is 6 months pregnant, happily married to her husband Patrick. One day he comes home acting unusual and wants to tell Mary something, but she keeps interrupting him trying to make supper for him. Next thing you know Mary goes to the freezer grabs a leg of lamb walks behind him and hits him in the head. To identify the language that portrays the emotions and the changing of her emotions, this essay traces the emotions of Mary and how she changes throughout the story.
Mary is no more capable of murder in her right mind than I am of swimming across the Atlantic Ocean. Roald Dahl’s short story, ‘Lamb to the Slaughter’, is about the murder of police detective Patrick Maloney by his wife Mary. Driven to homicide after her husband’s unexpected announcement that he’s leaving her and their unborn child, Mary quickly regains her senses after fatally killing him with the leg of lamb. However, she would have never killed her husband if she was in the right state of mind. Mary is shown to be temporarily insane when committing the murder of her husband because of the fact that she was pregnant, she was in a state of in denial and desperation, and most importantly that she had exhibited visible signs that are attributes of a person with mental instabilities.
Lamb to the Slaughter, by Roald Dahl, instantly grabs a reader’s attention with its grotesque title, ensuing someone’s downfall or failure. The saying “lamb to the slaughter,” usually refers to an innocent person who is ignorantly led to his or her failure. This particular short story describes a betrayal in which how a woman brutally kills her husband after he tells her that he wants a divorce. She then persuades the policemen who rush to the scene to consume the evidence. This action and Patrick’s actions show the theme of betrayal throughout the story which Roald Dahl portrays through the use of point of view, symbolism and black humor.
In his short story, Lamb to the Slaughter, Roald Dahl, through the use of symbolism and diction, gradually shows how a seemingly innocent character turns evil. One of Mary Maloney’s most obvious acts of evil is the murder of her own husband, Patrick Maloney who, similar to a lamb unsuspecting of its fate when it is led to slaughter, was caught completely unaware. She walked up behind her husband and “swung the big frozen leg of lamb high in the air and brought it down as hard as she could on the back of his head” (Dahl). She planned on murdering her husband and it was not out of self-defense. The murder of another person is a crime, and it goes against human morals as well.
In the two stories, “Lamb to the Slaughter” and “Desiree’s Baby,” the two authors portrays a identical story about a wife and husband whom love each other with love, affection, and devotion. But all good things must come to the end; especially when someone dies. All things were good for the couples until they didn’t stay committed, but they broke apart.In the story “Desiree’s Baby,” written by Kate Chopin, Desiree, the wife in the story, is the adopted daughter of Madame Valmonde. She was found by Armand, who is later on her husband, and he fell in love with her. Furthermore, the two couple are married and have a child. When the baby starts getting its color and starts growing, Armand realizes the baby has African ancestry. This becomes to
In “Lamb to the Slaughter”, Roald Dahl uses diction, details, and syntax to emphasize the matter-of-fact tone that is consistent throughout the entire story. Diction is a key element of tone that conveys this matter-of-fact tone. For example, Mary Maloney says to herself after killing her husband, “All right… So I’ve killed him” (Dahl 320). This sentence is lacking emotion. It states a pure fact, without going into further detail and captures a turning point in Mary Maloney’s way of thinking. By telling herself “all right,” Mary distances herself from the murder. She is detached from her own story and does not reveal any qualms about murdering her own husband. Similarly, Dahl uses the next sentence to describe Mary’s thoughts by explaining,
In “Lamb to the Slaughter,” Dahl highlights how the the truth is closer than you think. Mary Maloney is reactive when she finds out her husband wants to put an end to their marriage. After she finds
(Dahl 152). If Mary was a psychopath, she wouldn't of waited as long as she did for her husband to come home from work.
The short story “Lamb to The Slaughter” by Roald Dahl is about the death of a detective who has been murdered by his wife. As officers arrive they can’t seem to find the murder and the murder weapon. The short story Lamb to The Slaughter is interesting to read because the author allows readers to put their own perspective into the book. Another reason is the storyline and finally the theme.